In "The Collector", in order to avoid the suspicion of being Hawk Moth, he akumatizes himself into the Collector, a supervillain who has the power to imprison any person or object within his magical notebook.

Contents

Appearance

Physical appearance

Gabriel is a very tall man, whose skin tone is fair with a rosy tint. He has light blue eyes, and combed-back light blond hair.

Civilian attire

He wears black-framed silver glasses. He has a white dress shirt underneath a silver vest with red buttons and a cream-colored dress jacket, along with a red-and-white striped tie. He also wears red dress pants and white shoes with red laces. On the middle finger of his left hand, he has a silver band ring.

As Hawk Moth

Hawk Moth wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black butterfly-shaped lapel, the Butterfly Miraculous brooch on the center of the collar, and black dress pants. Over the majority of his face and neck, he wears a silver mask. He also has a dark indigo cane as his tool. Whenever he is controlling someone with an akuma, a bright purple butterfly-shaped outline appears on his face and around his eyes.

As the Collector

The Collector's skin is pale purple. His hair sticks up in a point and is white with black vertical stripes, however, along with the back of his head and his neck is black. He wears a black dress suit with a white lapel, stiff shoulders, and black and red downward-bent stripes on the front. Each lower sleeve has a white stripe, and the Collector's hands have white gloves. Also, he wears black dress pants. His high heel boots are connected to his body suit, and they are black with black and white striped heels.

As Scarlet Moth

Scarlet Moth’s outfit is the same as Hawk Moth's except it is colored burgundy-red due to the enhancement from Catalyst. His mask, cane, and the Butterfly Miraculous are also colored the same red. His cane allows him to create more than one akuma, giving him an advantage.

Personality

Gabriel comes off as a cold, harsh, and very strict man. He is very protective of his son Adrien, having kept him home for most of his life, although having a possessive and distant relationship with him. He makes executive decisions about how to keep his son safe without considering how he may feel, such as when he unjustly deems Nino Lahiffe a bad influence for Adrien and forbids him from coming to his home ever again. Gabriel misses his wife greatly and sometimes has to be reminded not to forget that his son is also grieving. According to Adrien in "Adrien's Double Life", ever since the disappearance of his wife, he is a changed man. He also strongly dislikes taking orders from anyone, even if they are from people who are trying to help and protect him, such as Ladybug and Cat Noir. Despite this, Gabriel can be respectful and kind at times, especially when needing to act professionally.

As Hawk Moth, he is cold and determined. After a villain's defeat, he determinedly vows revenge and, while stopping for a while afterward, doesn't wait too long to try again with his akumas. His goal is to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses to gain their absolute power necessary to achieve his dearest secret wish, not caring if he causes people harm in the process. He is aware of the equivalent exchange drawback of making a wish with the Miraculouses, every wish having a reaction to maintain balance in the universe, but it doesn't appear to bother him.[16]

He is also very stubborn as he refuses to listen to Nooroo about how he is using the Butterfly Miraculous, showing that he isn't remorseful about all the damage and chaos he is caused in Paris and also very desperate to save his wife. However, as the battle goes on to save her he is wracked with guilt and worry for Nathalie as she used the damaged Peacock Miraculous before it was fixed in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel". He says that he doing all this destruction so Adrien could be happy however, Gabriel appears to be deluding himself using his family's love as the reason to cover up the guilt and anger he feels towards the damaged the Peacock Miraculous and the mistakes of the past causing their misfortune as mentioned in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel". Another point of him being deluded is when he claimed that the outside world was dangerous but there were times when Gabriel proved by using the Miraculous irresponsibly he actually made himself a danger to his own son.

Hawk Moth's akumatized villains are his most powerful known weapon, so he chooses his victims carefully, usually people who are emotionally at their weakest. He is a skilled liar and manipulator, persuading people that he cares about their problems and giving them powers to help solve them, when in reality, he does it because he wants them to retrieve the Miraculouses for him. He gives them ideas if they are struggling to think one up.[17] However, if things aren't going his way, Hawk Moth easily loses his patience, threatening harm to Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even to the villains he creates. He also has a bit of a habit of celebrating too soon when the heroes get weaken by his many akumatized villains, thinking it will get him closer to the heroes' Miraculouses. He sometimes uses puns, such as telling the akuma in "The Evillustrator" to "draw [Nathaniel] into our evil web". On occassion, he misuses the power of good emotions through his villains to do his bidding by force seen "The Bubbler" and "Zombizou".

Despite these traits, Hawk Moth can be merciful with those he cares about, such as when he orders the supervillain to drop Ladybug in order to save Adrien who is falling off the building. He is obsessed with finding a way to save his wife, but is willing to give up his evil ways to protect Adrien from being caught in the crossfire or being targeted by the villains he creates. This situation, along with his frustration that even Audrey Bourgeois, who he believed was his greatest masterpiece, made him temporary renounce his role as a villain. However, he decided to continue to be Hawk Moth after Queen Bee appeared, viewing the opportunity to akumatize a Miraculous holder as too good to pass up.

Though his goal is specifically getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses, when Gabriel tells Nooroo that he is going to kidnap the kwami friends of the latter so he can have unlimited powers at his disposal, it is implied that he has become power-hungry due to being Hawk Moth for a long time and has gotten addicted to yearning power to the extreme degree that he will grasp every opportunity to seize the power in order to have easier access on stealing the Ladybug Miraculous and Cat Miraculous.

That devastation has made his heart grow twisted by sadness, cockiness, overconfidence, recklessness, despair and desperation so much that he didn't care about the pain and suffering he caused to everyone else even his own son. In an alternate future of "Cat Blanc", it was those very feelings that led to his own demise. Because of it he doesn't always seem to think things through, during his activities as his alterego, Gabriel thinks distancing himself from his son is keeping Adrien safe unaware that if he dares to make his wish, then he runs the risk of doing the opposite of what he wants. Or when he didn't recall his akuma back before he lost it in "Startrain", when he praised Chloe for using the remaining jewels against Ladybug and Cat Noir unaware that Chloe could've severely hurt herself by using said jewels all at once.

Like Ladybug, Gabriel too as come under the stress of the living a double life not finding it easy to be himself and his alter ego mentioned in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel".

As The Collector, being a voluntary akumatized villain, his personality doesn't change much. He is obsessed with collecting everything he likes to replace the Miraculous spellbook but is still determined to take Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. He also knows that he must protect his secret identity, telling the heroes that he would give their Miraculouses to Hawk Moth in order to throw them off his trail.

Abilities

As a civilian

Gabriel at his atelier on the phone arguing with an employee.

Gabriel is an expert at designing fashions for clothes, accessories, and jewelry. According to Audrey Bourgeois, the harshet fashion critic, he didn't see other talents as great as his until she met Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Additionally, owning the Gabriel brand, Gabriel is well-versed at running a business, including solving problems by phone concerning design issues and presenting himself professionally when around others.

Gabriel has good hindsight and suspicions about things, revealing he had suspected that there are more Miraculouses in the city and a guardian after Rena Rouge's appearance. In "Syren", he reveals that he'd suspected that Miraculouses had hidden powers after seeing Ladybug and Cat Noir in their aqua forms. He also believed that Adrien could be Cat Noir until he indirectly tricked him that he wasn't. According to Miraculous Secrets, he caused chaos on Paris in the first place not only to find superheroes, but a guardian in the city to decipher the spellbook.

He later noticed Ladybug's disappearances in the middle of battles to bring allies, suspecting that she went to the Guardian of the Miraculouses.

Despite being often outsmarted by Ladybug, Gabriel proved to be a brilliant strategist and tactician. Not being deceived by Ladybug like his villains, he has proven himself to be cautious and careful like the superheroine herself. In order to avoid the suspicion of being Hawk Moth, he akumatizes himself. He showed that he is willing to use dirty or unfair tactics such as using sheer numbers to wear the superheroes down and resorting to surprise attacks as seen in “Heroes’ Day”. He noticed that both Lila and Chloé had great potential and unfinished business with Ladybug, planning to use this to his advantage not only to akumatize them (especially the latter as she had a Miraculous), but also form alliances with them.

Since Nathalie stole Fu's tablet with the deciphered spellbook pages, Gabriel has knowledge about the process to repair Miraculouses, several spells such as the incantation needed for the wish-granting power of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, and the recipes for the potions which grant more powers to the holders. However just like, Master Fu and Marinette, since former master was only able to partially decode the Miraculous spellbook it's likely his understanding is limited as well.

Gabriel plays the piano with Adrien.

Gabriel has many talents which his son later learnt: He is very skilled at fencing, knows how to play the piano and perform a duo, and is able to speak Japanese fluently. Furthermore, Gabriel is able to grow and harvest butterflies.

As Hawk Moth

Hawk Moth has enhanced skills such as speed, agility, strength and near-invulnerability. Despite the fact that he doesn't often fight directly, Hawk Moth is a capable sword fighter, being able to defend himself and destroy miniature missiles from his own lair's defense protocol with his swordstick. His prowess is enough to overpower younger combatants like Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Even without being transformed, Hawk Moth's Miraculous allows him to feel emotions, whether positive or negative, like an empath, so he can precisely pinpoint the person's name and the reason why they have negative emotions.

Hawk Moth can control many akumas to form a swarm that makes a large version of his head, which he can speak through which is shown in "Stoneheart".

Hawk Moth's main superpower is Akumatization, charging butterflies with dark energy which transforms them into akumas and then sending them out to possess an object of a vulnerable person. He can also keep his butterflies in his cane if he needs to use an akuma in another location other than his lair. If his targets agree to serve him, he transforms them into supervillains by corrupting their personalities and granting them a wide variety of superpowers or special abilities. He can also telepathically communicate with his so-called "winners". A pink butterfly-shaped outline appears in front of his and the villains' faces when he does so.
However, he is only able to create one villain at a time over the course of an indeterminate amount of time, he needs to convince his victims to accept the powers that he grants, and the akumatized that he creates do still have a will of their own and can either disobey him or carry out his orders incompetently. Still, if a supervillain doesn't go and retrieve the Miraculous like they were asked to, Hawk Moth can control their bodies for a brief amount of time in order to inflict pain onto them until they agree to do it as quickly as possible. He is also capable of purifying an akuma himself.

When an akuma isn't purified by Ladybug, it will multiply and turn other people into frozen copies of the original akumatized villain. Hawk Moth can recall and trap the original akuma in the top of his cane in order to release it again when the victim gets sad or angry once more. This turns the victim into the same akumatized villain, but it also unfreezes the copies of them, which the original villain can command and control. However, once the original akuma is de-evilized, its copies vanish, reverting the duplicates of the villain back to normal.

As The Collector

The Collector using his notebook to defend himself from the CD's.

The Collector is able to trap objects and people in the form of drawings inside his notebook. He throws the notebook like a boomerang, and while the notebook can go very far distances, once it captures something or someone by hitting them, it returns to him wherever he is. This is intensified as he can summon it. He can also utilize the notebook as a shield against projectiles, opening the book, either holding it sturdily or waving it around, so it traps the object being thrown towards him. Anything it passes through is trapped no matter how big it is. However, there is a limit to how much can be absorbed, as shown when Ladybug used a makeshift conveyor belt to launch a barrage of Adrien's CDs at him and he used his book to absorb them.
When he then tried to absorb Ladybug, he found that the book's pages were all full and could not absorb anything more.

Additionally, The Collector is quick and agile, easily flipping, jumping, and dodging attacks.

As Scarlet Moth

Scarlet Moth releases scarlet akumas with his cane.

Scarlet Moth has the same abilities as Hawk Moth, but he is stronger as he can create as many akumatized villains as he desires. This is caused by his cane getting affected by Catalyst's enhancement. He can use his cane to summon more scarlet akumas to make the heroes feel intimidated and outnumbered. Instead of creating normal akumas, he creates scarlet akumas, which are dark crimson red, just like the akumatized.

Unlike with normal akumatized villains, Scarlet Moth can akumatize his victims without having to ask for their permission and the created villains are bound to obey him, showing that the will that they still had in a normal akumatization is now diminished. He used Dark Cupid to create the negative emotions he needed so he could akumatize more villains.

Notes

Emilie Agreste mysteriously disappeared before the events of Season 1. In "Style Queen" and "Queen Wasp", it was revealed that she is underneath the Agreste Mansion in the same room seen in "Gorizilla", inside something resembling a coffin, in which she appears to be in a comatose state.

In “Félix”, it is said that Gabriel did not let Adrien go to Amelie's husband's funeral.

Trivia

Hawk Moth's appearance is very different from his appearance in the Ladybug PV. In the PV, he doesn't wear a mask, has white hair and silver eyes, and wears a white dress suit with a pale tan vest and bow.

In "Volpina", Adrien takes the Miraculous book, unbeknownst to Gabriel, and the book eventually ends up in Marinette's hands. Once he discovers that it is missing in "The Collector", he, despite having the book's pages saved digitally, becomes very angry and punishes Adrien, most likely due to the book making him the primary suspect for being Hawk Moth.

The painting of Emilie Agreste also conceals another secret — access to the entrance to Hawk Moth's lair. The passage opens when certain spots of the painting are pressed.

In "Queen Wasp" and "Catalyst", it is hinted that Gabriel's intentions for getting the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses are linked to a promise with Emilie.

In "Party Crasher", Gabriel mentions that the past event seems to be a mistake he and Emilie made.

Hawk Moth usually reveals his name to his victims when he corrupts them. However, he never gave out his name to the Evillustrator or Darkblade.

As seen in episodes like "Darkblade", "Antibug", and "Princess Fragrance", Hawk Moth has the time to akumatize more than one person a day, even though it is not more than one person each time.

In "Timebreaker", however, he is able to twice akumatize Alix for the two of them to operate concurrently, by virtue of the timeline of events being altered by her time-traveling ability.

In "Sapotis", he was able to akumatize both of Alya's sisters because they were both holding onto the same object.

Despite being busy with job in his atelier, Gabriel is constantly seen in his lair. This is likely because he is rarely seen out of his mansion, as mentioned by Marinette as Ladybug and reporter Nadja Chamack. He is always seen in his home or through Nathalie's tablet, except for "Queens' Battle", "Backwarder", and in "Party Crasher".

In "Volpina", Adrien confuses a previous owner of the Butterfly Miraculous for Hawk Moth upon seeing his picture in the Miraculous Spellbook.